I count one team on the schedule that maybe has better talent and we'll see how we stack up with them tomorrow. Did Brian Kelly buy some Denard repellant? Did Taylor Martinez have his arm replaced? Is Air Force allowed to bring actual fighter planes on the field?

Alabama, Notre Dame, Ohio State, MSU, and Nebraska are all pretty losable, and all of them are either on the road or at a neutral site. I don't think we'll lose four of those five, but it's not unthinkable.

Notre Dame, OSU, and Nebraska are not good football teams. They weren't last year, and I don't see what changes make them awesome this year. MSU will be anywhere from slightly worse to considerably worse than last year and we play them at home. Bama is in the same boat, despite the media telling itself that they just reload (as if repeating it makes it true).

We were so close to losing to Notre Dame last year. I know we got a lot better, but they're not a bad team. OSU will be a good football team, especially at the end of the season. They have too many good athletes on both sides of the ball to not be. Nebraska should improve defensively. If they don't, I'll be right with you.

MSU could be worse, depending on their passing game. We'll see tonight.

I don't think any of those teams are bad teams. However, the way I see it, we had 4 tough games last season, and we won 3 of them (4 of 5 if you include the bowl). So Mr. Juggegrnaut, what has changed?

We caught Notre Dame early in the year, when we were still developing as a defense. Yes, we barely won. However, I think that another year in the system and our whole defense is better. Notre Dame's defense is really thin at defensive back. They don't have Michael Floyd anymore. They have a new quarterback. I'm really not that concerned.

Sparty, I have this game as toss up. We'll find out more about Andrew Maxwell and how good Sparty is as we get closer to the game. However, I see a team that lost a key player on the line and lost a lot of offensive talent. I still think the defense will be good and LeVeon Bell is an awesome RB. It's a toss up.

Nebraska, we stomped them at the Big House. We dominated them. They lost three key players on defense in Crick, David, and Dennard. I just don't see Taylor Martinez beating our defense. I know we're going to Lincoln, but I just don't see it.

Ohio State, this game will be really interesting. There's a lot of emotion. This is another toss up for me (slight dog). I think Michigan will have a lot to play for and they'll be very motivated.

I could see us losing a game or two, but I just don't see us losing 3 of these games. I think that we're between a 9-3 and 11-1 team. Four losses though? It seems very unlikely.

Stephen Hopkins started at RB (Fitz didn't play), we had 7 points going into the 4th quarter, and pretty much all the awkwardness of an offensive transition was crammed into the beginning of that game. We did just about everything wrong for 3 quarters on both sides of the ball, turned it on and still won thanks to Denard and the Irish allergy to winning.

Don't see them really hanging with this year's team at all for a lot of the reasons mentioned.

I'm going to go ahead and predict a Sparty loss. From coaches to players, these guys seem to be feeling a little too good about themselves, with the media priming that pump. When I hear their players talking about national championships, I know they've jumped ahead.

And again, Boise is a team that plays smart and physical, and Petersen can take advantage of the Sparty D's hyper-aggressive tendencies, if anyone can. He's had a whole offseason to study them.

"really important player for a few years and not sure they have anyone close to that level on the roster now"

Couldn't you say that about Cousins, Cunningham, Martin, and Foreman? If you look at the clutch play from just the first two in their close games last year (and the year before), it's going to take a hell of a replacement effort to be as good as advertised.

I've spent the first 19 years of my young life watching Michigan State exist as a mediocre program with no real success. Them achieving success over the last 4 years is an unwelcomed shock to what I've grown up knowing.

Boise is a in 4-2-5, I suddenly see the root of their problem on defense. With only two LBs there, MSU is just blasting massive lanes in the middle. Go pull the box safety and get yourself an extra SAM in there.

Yeah, the Boise DC was staying in nickel despite facing both a TE and a FB. If he doesn't wise up, this is going to be over by halftime and midway through the 4th, Sparty's mascot is gonna be putting up Heisman like rushing numbers.

Did you see the size of that guy trying to come up and stop the MSU RB? It's goal line and freaking Boise is counting on a DB to come up and club the RB in the hole. Did Boise hire GERG or a beaver recently?

I see a lot of quasi-legal dirtiness out of Sparty here. They like to use their opponents as leverage to get up off the ground, ride them unnecessarily out of bounds, etc. We're going to have to maintain our composure against these dickheads.

Even if not today, boiling over and a B1G suspension is probably in the cards this season for someone. I would say we should try and talk a little something to push them over the edge, but between arm-bars and twisted facemasks, all that'll do is get someone hurt or killed.

In arrlington right now with one of my buds. Drove from niles, mich. My question to the board is where you all at? Were trying to catch up with some fellow bloggers and drink some beers. Also have two tickets for sale for the game

This whole root for the conference really bugs me. There is no formula for who you should vote for. If you want a team to win, root for them. If you want a team to lose, root against them. I get the feeling that the Big Ten vs SEC is just a way to boost ratings.

Yeah, was laughing at that one. Offered a scholly to a guy was going to walk-on. How the rest of the recruiting battle going - if they start talking about national recruiting I am going to fall out of chair.

I'm not going to judge Maxwell over his first start tonight. He should be much better come Oct 20th.

We will still have to play a great game to beat them. With that said though....you can already see on their D that they are missing Worthy already. His ability to jump the snap count made that entire DLine better.

It really feels like they're starting to find cracks in the MSU defense. And they looked much better on defense themselves leading up to the field goal. Plus, losing Dennard has to help them, even though it's bad for football in general.

I have the msu-bsu game on in the background while playing with my 4 yr old daughter. They just showed sparty and she asked, "who's that?". I told her it is sparty spartan. When they cut away, she said, "aww, I wanted to punch him!". That's my girl!

There should be a limit on the number of personal fouls you can accummulate. If you get two in a game, you should be ejected automatically. And if you get, say, five in a season, you're automatically suspended for the next game. For guys like Gholston, the 15 yards isn't enough of a disincentive.

That's Jemele Hill. She's a State grad, and I think she's having a hard time controlling her homer emotions. I feel like you can tell how the game is going based on how mopey she has become. She is awful regardless of that though.